Europe

That swanky looking Sonic Mania collector’s edition is coming to Europe, Sega announced today. It’s exactly the same package that North America is getting, but there are a couple of caveats.

The first being that some might find it a bit overpriced. While the CE retails for $69.99 in the US, it costs a whopping £79.99 in the UK and €89.99 in the rest of Europe. So really you might not be paying much less than if you’d be importing the thing from the US. Secondly, it appears that it’s only available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the PC version being left out. Which is a bit weird seeing how Sega Europe usually tends to put most of their focus on PC games.

Aside from that, you’re still getting everything the US is getting here. The collector’s edition is now available for pre-order exclusively on Amazon… or at least it was, but it appears to have gone out of stock everywhere except for in Germany while I was writing this article. Seriously:

Welp. Anyway, here are the links to the Amazon store pages in case the CE becomes available again.

This is Sega Europe. They do things like localise games from Japanese and release them in the UK, Germany, France, Australia, etc.

Oh, did I say localise games? Old hat. Their current job is to say “no information at this time” to any questions on Twitter. Overand overand over again. This is a shame, because SoE used to be the best Sega division, and SoA has rather cheekily stolen this title in the last couple of years.

The only reason I can think of for them doing this (other than just tormenting the audience, and I can’t see this as a logical business decision), is that they don’t think they’ll make any money on a release. That the translation won’t get them sales, and that they need some incentive or something.

Right. They want some incentive? Let’s bloody GIVE them an incentive! If the only thing they’re going to listen to is cold hard cash, I think we can do that. Continue Reading

As we near 25 years of Sonic the Hedgehog, I wanted to kick off a video series looking back at an aspect of the franchise that has always been a favorite of mine – food promotions! From McDonald’s to Topps to Carl’s Jr and beyond, SEGA has teamed their flagship franchise with some of the greatest, and at times weirdest, food companies. In this first installment, I take a look back at the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 McDonald’s Happy Meal promotion which ran worldwide in 1994 and 1995. Everything from the commercials to the in-store displays is covered, and I even clear up some misconceptions about that whole Tails recall situation and figure out just what that yellow Tails ball was. Special thanks to The Gagaman for additional information.

With popular video game characters usually come merchandise, and Sonic is no exception. In fact, he has so much merchandise there might as well be a store dedicated to it. It seems like SEGA had this idea, as they have launched an official online store with Sonic figurines, posters, DVDs and more. So if you were looking for a site where you can buy a DVD box-set of the complete series of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog or a poster with classic Sonic, you found it. That is, if you live in Europe, the store doesn’t ship anywhere else at the moment, sorry Americans. The site uses a reward point system, so if you buy a product you’ll get a certain amount of points which you can use to pay part of a different product.

Australians can get in on picking up this album if they pre-order the game at JB Hi-Fi, though Sega stresses supplies are very limited. It’s currently unknown which retailers will be offering these albums in Europe.

So what’s on the album? On side A, you’ll find “Open Your Heart” from Sonic Adventure and “Option Remix 2002” from Space Channel 5: Part 2. Side B is nothing but crazy money, containing “Radical Sabbatical”, “Flinch”, and “Get Out” from Crazy Taxi.

Say what you will about the collection of games itself, but this is a pretty nifty pickup for Sega and music enthusiasts.

No no, calm down fanboys. I wish it were a real leap from SEGA back into the hardware sector, but this unfortunately isn’t the case. What we have here is a game console featuring officially licensed SEGA games as well as 16 other titles which feature “innovative motion controls”. The original posting by pocket-lint.com features a few interesting images of the console, including the one shown here. But what’s most interesting is the main image in the article, showing off a version of what’s seen here but with heavier SEGA branding. Although this console may be a simple ripoff of the Wii trying to make a quick buck, one can’t help but get lost in the idea of what it would be like if it was still SEGA and Nintendo duking it out and if SEGA’s result might be something similar to this.